UAE, Egypt airdrop more humanitarian aid into Gaza Strip

ABU DHABI, UAE

The United Arab Emirates and Egypt said on Tuesday that they had airdropped more humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip – an area of the strip hard particularly hit by food shortages.

The airdrop was part of the Birds of Goodness operation, which aims to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.

On X, the Joint Operations Command of the Emirati Defense Ministry announced “the implementation of the 22nd airdrop of humanitarian and relief aid as part of the 'Birds of Goodness' operation.''

''The airdrop was carried out over inaccessible isolated areas in the northern Gaza Strip via three aircraft carrying 82 tonnes of food and relief aid,'' the statement added in English.

The Egyptian army also said in a statement that on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday its air forces continued to airdrop tons of relief aid to the people of the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 33,000 Palestinians have since been killed and almost 75,500 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week urged Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul